Humans are strange little animals. Sometimes, seemingly for no reason at all, the minds of many, many individuals interlock over an artifact, idea or belief. Some call it a “collective consciousness.” That humans have the ability to turn their minds eyes into a hive for particularly salient data streams. In our world that means memes, videos, tweets, phrases, sayings and other musings can go a word that was never meant to be used to describe it: viral. But there are different tiers of virality. For the layman without an audience, it means a huge spike in momentary visibility. For the established star it can mean a sustained career and even riches because, let’s face it, some people can reach into someone else’s milkshake and some cannot.
The term “collective consciousness” was created by Emile´ Durkheim and was described this way in his groundbreaking work The Division Of Labour In Society: “The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society forms a determinate system with a life of its own..” spoke Emile´. “It can be termed the collective or creative consciousness.” How did they know that some 120 years later that we could marry that thought process to the modern world with such profound results? How did they know that six-second loops and memes would come to define our virtual lives and spill out into our real ones?
Virality Means You Don’t Own Your Moments
So when things go “viral,” of course, they’ll be seen by not just those of us without the power the capitalize off of that interest, but by the vested and invested themselves. In fact, two much smaller fish have seen their ideas, gobbled up or transformed depending on whom you ask, by much larger artists with much larger reaches. But were they straight up jackings? Tokyo Vanity and D.R.A.M may tell you they were while Young Thug and Drake will tell you they were not, kind of.
Can you cry foul in an environment where something becoming popular may have nothing to do with you or the machine behind you? Tokyo Vanity’s phrase “That’s my best friend” saw a sudden spike in March of this year if you ask Google Trends, but the phrase initiated on the platform Vine. And, unlike the outside world, Vine owns what you use on the platform. That explosion was probably what led to Tokyo Vanity eventually parlaying the saying into a ringtone called “My Best Friend Finna.” From meme to ringtone and finally to song, Tokyo dropped “That’s My Best Friend” on Soundcloud around three months ago, and while the song has 331K plays and counting, the heat really got turned up when she dropped the video on Youtube. Between August 3, 2015, and today, the video has just over two million views. This should all be a cinderella story of epic proportions, right? Except for the fact that Young Thug flipped that phrase and song into his own original work called “Best Friend,” which has over 15.5 million views on Youtube. Just in Youtube dollars the difference in payout is fairly vast and that’s not including the perks of already being a celebrity and being able to cut lucrative deals with Youtube ad partners. Now, she claims that she’s copyrighted the song and can sue whenever she wants, but a more important question is why didn’t she tie her name to that comet and branch off the success of Thugger’s new hit?
Sure, it came from her viral idea, but in this world where people have access to other people’s thoughts for free, it’s branching off of a viral idea to create something else that separates the winners from the losers. In fact, author of the Forbes “Get Paid To Be Yourself” series Julian Mitchell seems to think not attaching herself to Thug may have cost her in the long run. “No matter how big your records are you’re not going to make what you’re worth..” says Julian. “She’s denying herself passive revenue streams [by refusing to be in his video]. She could have been in the video with him and that could have gone viral! She could have had Young Thug Tweet it. Artists like that never have a problem giving credit. He can’t steal the record because the record was too big without him. So there’s no way he can jack the record.” Now, it seems, everyone is talking about his record and Trey Songz record and not about hers.
Resistance Is Futile
“Hotline Bling” is now taking Drake to unforeseen heights. What was essentially a loosie b-side released in tandem with his Meek Mill diss “Back To Back” on his Apple radio show has gone, well, viral. And the Canadian star, who originally had the damming “(Cha Cha Remix)” attached to the song has begun to distance himself from the “Cha Cha” created by D.R.A.M. And, of course, that song went viral after Queen Bey did the dance on a grainy Instagram video, suddenly thrusting the Virginia native into the national consciousness. But, as big as your song can get, when a big fish rolls by and flips your mono Mario Bros. baseline into a syrupy song about an ex-gone rogue after you’ve left the city there’s not much you can do. He’s stated his displeasure above. But he also stated he’s GOOD, and that he’s moving on from the single that Drake’s turned into a reheated viral masterpiece in his own right. What can you do? Drake’s dorky 80s dancehall dance-o-rama of a video has catapulted him into the news without mercy. It’s even on its way to being his first number one. You heard that right, the skeleton of the song he lifted and flipped may take him to a place he’s never been before. But what does this all mean?
It means that this will continue to happen. Now, nothing can stop it. The feeding frenzy for new ideas means that the greatest yields can, perhaps, come from the viral moment that most are laughing at, but some are looking to mine for an opportunity at an easy win. Think about it. Who needs a marketing budget when some plucky Viner made good or some (for now) smaller artist has already done the legwork for you? You, the bigger artist, can then ride on top of their success to create your own unique moment from theirs. And since this is happening outside the major label system, the laws of the jungle apply. The big steal big and the little steal little. Of course, one of the ways out may just be to try to attach yourself to the bigger artist who attached themselves to your success. So can Tokyo sue? And do both her and D.R.A.M have another moment to feed to the frenzied social media masses? See you next six-second loop and maybe we’ll find the answer.
Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.
Andre Young – i hardly agree with your articles but i agree here. I cant remember a time in hip hop where things were as shady as they ever were. The industry has always been shady but right now its becoming so obvious its almost like artist are saying “so what if i stole the song, what are you going to do about it?”. The level of audacity that is taking place right how in hip hop is ridiculous. I dont know who to blame more, the artists for jacking material and being so smug about it or the fans on social media who gobble it up without seemingly giving any thought to what exactly theyre listening too. Its a sad state we are in. It feels like more than ever the game is deteriorating into a genre full of fake individuals both artist and listener alike. At this point certain artists like Drake can pretty much fart on the mic and twitter heads will embrace it and push it to the top of the charts. No matter how bad or corny it sounds. Do you get what i am trying to say or convey?
Yes, I get that you are a sad individual with a lot of principles up his ass…So you’re gonna tell me that when you listen to a song, whats important to you is not the way it makes you feel, its not the memories that comes with them, for you whats important is to make sure that every second of the song was written/produced/idealized by the one artist whos singing, otherwise its “fake”, “stollen” “not hiphop” right? Youre a sad individual because there are NO SONGS that match your criteria. Every idea every human ever had was inspired to him, wether directly or not and hip hop itself was founded on the sampling of old records, mixing old melodies together with a different rythm to create something new. Both Chacha and hotline bling are based on the same dancehall sample from the 70s. Drake probably enjoyed Chacha, asked his guys to find him the sample and started recording some random shyt on it between charged up and back to back…so once it started becoming popular what should he have done? By your logic, he shouldve erased it from social media and abandonned the idea to make money of of it in order to save his “realness”? So he could stay real in front of D.R.A.M.? A guy that he doesnt know personally and that doesnt own the rights to the sample anyways? And more importantly, what would YOU have done?
@Alessandro The only trend I’ve noticed is that you seem to comment on every Andre Grant article, why don’t you just ask him out already?
First of all many of you should stop hiding behind the word “inspire” as a way to justify deliberately copying another artist. Thats a cop out plain and simple just ask robin thicke how that worked out for him.
See you are exactly the kind of person i am referring too. The kind who doesnt see the wrong in riding someone elses idea so that you yourself profit off it. There is sampling and there is biting. If i sample a beat and it takes off and then a major artist with all kinds of promotion does the exact same thing after he sees my success. Thats not biting or at least riding me? Especially when the shit sounds similar?
You even said at the end of you paragraph that what was drake supposed to do abandon money? So by YOUR logic do whatever it takes to get money even if it means biting what someone else just did simply because you can. So by YOUR logic the end result is more about making a profit than it is about the music and the process of creating music. Even if that artist is already worth millions and has twitter on lock. By YOUR logic shit all over the little man even when you dont have too and like i said simply because you can. Niggas arent stupid or naive. They know when they got a fan base or not. So at the end of the day dont try to bring up how the music makes you feel as a way to justify an artist playing the im the big fish card.
In all seriousness once you bring up money then dont talk to me about music. I dont hide behind numbers like record sales and how much money they make. The quality of music and its creative process is what is important to me. Im sorry someone like you cant fathom that thought since we live in an era where money+record sales override the musical aspect.
If im a sad individual then you are a pathetic individual in every sense of the word.
What negative impact did D.R.A.M. get from Drake making hotline bling, when did the little man get shat on? Youre talking about it as if, if Hotline bling didnt exist, his song would have suddenly reached a greater commercial success. Or as if he got denied a spot that he rightfully deserved… hell this is not TV! One rapper getting more audience doesnt mean the others are getting less. Actually this whole controversy probably helped Chacha. so lemme get one thing straight, even if theyre both from the same instrumental Chacha is not as powerful, catchy and rythmically interesting as hotline bling and I think his success is well deserved on quality and merit alone cuz the best part about the song is not the instrumental.. On the other hand maybe Drake didnt do enough to associate D.R.A.M. with his record, and ill admit it, trying to act like it was not called Chacha remix at first was kinda shady…but overall, artists have had only advantages from those “big fishes” roaming around their songs. Good recent exemples are the song Cheerleader by OMI, which was made a few years ago and only became a massive hit when Felix Jaehn made a remix of it or the song My Way by fetty wap, which reached commercial greatness after a drake feature. OMI got to do a brand new clip for his songs and was given the unique opportunity to reform his career and start making music that made ppl happy again. Fetty wap praised Drake and celebrated his appropriation of the song like a promotion, he got recognized by one of the greatest thus giving him a possibility to join that elite group. See? Besides the money that Im sure Omi and Fetty were happy to make so they could live and sustain their families giving them what they believe is the best, they got recognition as artists, they got to change and touch the lives of people, they got more artistic freedoms cuz labels tend to trust more their best selling artists. As an artist, theres nothing more important than those 3 things.
Also, I like how you tried to make a portrait of my general opinion on music just based on the fact that I talked about money as a factor. Niggas aint naive? So why are you acting like art since the time of the fucking Athenians hasnt been tied with money? Does that make me a brainless sheep that only listen to whats on the radio and on Top 100? Do you think record sales and rappers networths are my criteria to choose what music to listen to? You dont know me.
As I said at the beginning of the 1st paragraph you seem to be full of principles, and while I dont totally believe that if you were an artist you wouldnt try to export your brand as much as possible, I admit that I dont have as many principles and I definitely would surf on a trending vibe to get where Im trynna go. Even if I didnt start that vibe. Does that mean I would spit on the whoever started it? Absolutely no and thats not what these artists are doing either
Lmaoooo and to you Concern reader, Im happy for you that youre able to see each and every comment that I posted or who wrote each article cuz Im myself incapable of remembering or finding any of them specially since I dont always use “Alessandro”
As for Andre Grant, is he a sexy lebanese girl with big booty and blue-eyes? If not hes all yours mate! 🙂 looool
A discussion of the fact a creator owns a copyright upon creation but can only get verifiable damages if you sue for infringement would of been helpful info to explore as well as share.
Young Thug and Drake are both garbage and gay and should kill themselves.
You shouldn’t say that someone should kill themselves.
Black people must die. What a garbage race they are.
your ass half black mexican
Durkheim is not a woman. Collective consciousness has nothing to do with anything that you wrote. But go on with your half-baked musings.
Im sorry, I dont get it. Why da fuck are people trying to say that Drake and Young Thug jacked those songs????? Mufucking Hotline Bling dont sound shit close to Cha Cha!!!! Both songs use two totally different samples. Drake’s from the singer Timmy Thomas(70s) and D.R.A.M’s shit is from the Super Mario Brothers (80s) video game. Might as well say the muthafuckas who did the Super Mario Brothers joint jacked Timmy Thomas…DA FUCK!!!! Whats wild is that people seem to forgot that music in all genres generally will have the “same sound” with its peers IN THAT GENRE. HELL u might as well say all dem Trap music producers are jacking the shit out of each other when it comes to sounds use in their beats but that will be stupid for someone to think that they are actually jacking each others shit. I really dont understand the fat bitch claim. Sorry, I just dont cuz Young Thug just use the same fuckin song title BEST FRIEND? and by no means am I a young thug fan either. My disclaimer is that Im a 44 yr old black man that grew up with hip hop so maybe Im just that out of touch with this shit now. In the 90s, we would not make this shit news worthy at all becuz a rack of niggas were using the SAME FUCKIN SAMPLE LOOP at times with their shit. One of the reason y I never fucked with Xclan cuz them brothas would be a year or two behind using a hot ass loop that some other cats had used that made hits with it already. My point is we gave you props on how u rock over that joint. If you killed it but it sounds similar to a joint that came out before you then fuck it you won. Just my 44yr old ass thoughts!!!!! PEACE!!!!!
If you’re 44, you should know that having 2 different samples and 2 songs that have the EXACT same drum pattern/sequencing, melody (although in a different key), and cadence. And also the fact that Drake was cha cha dancing in the video (which doesn’t have shit to do with the song). And if the songs were so different, him and his team wouldn’t have labeled it a Cha Cha Remix on Apple Music and his Soundcloud before taking that off the name
his team didn’t market it as cha cha remix (beats 1 did), they posted it on soundcloud as hotline bling, and the songs sound nothing alike
you’re nearly half century years old talk about this shit!!! It’s really a shame. They both garbage aight?
Durkheim was a French man… do your research
go fuck yer mom’s mouth again bitch!